Meta

Friends

Category: Global Activism

Avaaz is a name meaning voice.It is an organization that was founded in 2007 for the purpose of bringing change through activism. Avaaz has a presence in over 30 countries and continues to campaign for the betterment of human life.

Avaaz was started by a number of co-founders who include Jeremy Heimans, Ricken Patel, Tom Perriello, Eli Pariser MoveOn Executive Director, Australian entrepreneur David Madden, Andrea Woodhouse, and Tom Pravda. The board that currently oversees Avaaz is headed by Ricken Patel the current president.

This group does not depend on organizations or corporations for funding but rather encourages its own members to contribute in order for it to be able to achieve its goals.This was designed in order to ensure that the organization continues to be fully independent and at no time be under the influence of the financiers or governments.

Avaaz has continued to empower millions of people by taking action on different areas such as corruption, poverty, conflict and climate change. Based on a model internet organizing paradigm it has been able to reach thousands of individuals and consolidate their efforts, however small.

The Avaaz group has been able to launch campaigns in 15 languages and in the process reach six continents. Their main form of campaign strategies are through funding media campaigns, the signing of petitions, direct actions, emailing and lobbying those in power and government representatives.

Avaaz prides itself in having flexibility in the way it tackles diverse issues meaning it can be able to tackle a broad number of concerns at once in different areas or countries as long as they affect the general population.

They have been able to become more consolidated and avoid fracturing over time the belief that people might disagree on specifics but still have the same shared goal enables Avaaz to put the responsibility of choice of participation by individual members rather than coercion.